Johnstein!

Hey everyone... We made it! Our flights were smooth and delay free...although we did get to run through O'Hare in order to make our connecting flight. The hotel is near the airport so we were able to get settled within 20 minutes of landing at DSM. Fortunately, we get an afternoon to relax and prepare ourselves before meeting with Sharesa, the recruiter from VCS. Please keep us in your prayers as we venture out into Downtown Des Moines tonight for dinner... Specifically, pray for Sharesa as she shares with us all the information she needs to in order to prepare us for the next steps in this journey; and with us as we remain obedient to God's calling on our hearts and for faith as we step out on this journey. We'll update with the results of the meeting, tomorrow night...

God is good...Rebecca and I will be flying to Iowa on Friday morning to meet with the recruiter from Vienna Christian School. We will be back Saturday afternoon. I've realized that there are many of you reading this blog that might not know what it is exactly we are doing with this whole deal...so stay tuned for a more detailed update of what our roles will be at Vienna Christian School.

I trust that everyone had a fantastic weekend. Many amazing things happened this weekend... A dear friend and childhood mentor passed away yesterday morning. Clyde Elliott is now dancing and worshiping God in Heaven after a long struggle with cancer. Throughout the last few years, Clyde's strong faith has been an encouragement to all who have had the opportunity to interact with him. Despite the fact that cancer was absolutely ravaging his body, his faith and focus on God promise did not waver. I am honored to say that he was one of my mentors, and his mentorship will be missed; but more importantly, he was my friend. RIP Clyde, aka "CLOIDE ELITE"... Rebecca and I headed down to Orange County on Friday to help my dad as he welcomed a group of 8 seminary students from St. Louis for a mutli-cultural urban experience. We picked them up at LAX on Saturday morning, and after a short introduction to the area and program, we headed down to Little Saigon in Westminster to w...

We have been invited to speak at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Garden Grove. This is the church that Michael grew up and his dad, Doug, was a pastor at for many years. The service times are at 8:00 am and 11:00 am. Please come to hear more about Vienna and what our prayer and financial needs are. If you can't make it but would be interested in having us come speak to your church or small group, please let us know. Otherwise, please keep us in your prayers.

Ok everybody...so things are happening. I got an email this morning from the HR/recruiter for VCS and they want to extend the positions to Rebecca and I! The next step, now, is to go to Iowa to meet with the recruiter for a final interview/orientation that will last approximately 6 hours. They will pay $300 of our travel costs...which, based on some of the prices I found today, will put us about $400 short of what we need. They want us in Iowa as soon as possible (thinking next fri 2/26 - sat 2/27), because the recruiter is 6 weeks from her due date and we need to start the process of raising support as soon as possible. Obviously we will be speaking with many of you in the coming months about partnering with us to do God's work in Vienna by raising the necessary 20-25 thousand dollars for moving expenses and 60-70 thousand dollars/year to live in Austria...but RIGHT NOW we need strong prayer that God will provide $400 to get us started with the meeting in Iowa. Please pray for...

Just got off a skype call with the principal at Vienna Christian School. What an amazing opportunity! Today has definitely been a day where God has poured into our lives. We've been getting a bit discouraged, with the large scale of the changes and support that we will need to raise but we were able to have a couple of conversations that have been very helpful. We had a new membership meeting with pastor Chris at Apple Valley Baptist Church. He was very encouraging to us telling us that is was ok to be excited about the location that God is calling us to. Speaking with Nels (the principal at VCS) was extremely encouraging. I told him that I would indeed be interested in teaching AP Lit and Comp and basically told me at the end of the conversation that they would like to have Rebecca and I continue through the process with the expectation that we are going to start the school year in Vienna. He was also very encouraging as he shared some of his experience with support raising an...

We are continuing to chase after God's will in this decision... Michael had a great conversation with the secondary principal from Vienna Christian School. Some great things seem to be happening there; their greatest need is for an AP Lit and composition teacher. Obviously, this is not my area of greatest strength. Please pray for me as I try to understand if this is where God wants to use me. Rebecca had a very productive conversation with Carol, the recruiter at Ldi. Both Rebecca and I are simply waiting on one reference to complete their portion of the reference. We anticipate that these will be done by early this week. Once those are complete we will progress to the interview with the HR director and then hopefully to placement. Obviously, both of these options are proceeding with great speed and we continue to pray for wisdom and courage as God continues to open doors. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Please pray for us as we will be having a couple of conversations with people tomorrow (2/12/09. Michael will be having an interview with the secondary school Principal from Vienna Christian School @8:00 AM. Rebecca will be speaking with the recruiter from LDi @ 9:00 AM.

Hey everybody... This site is going will be the place for all of you who are supporting us to keep up with what is going on with our call to serve.... The latest news: We are currently in the process of applying to, and interviewing with, 2 schools. We had an interview this morning with the director of Vienna Christian School (VCS) and are continuing to move on through more levels of interviews. We also speaking with a non profit organization that runs Christian international schools in East Asia. We are currently at the references check portion of the process. We ask that you please pray for us as we continue on through the various stages in this journey, and check back here for updates! Please check out our prayer list...Thanks everyone!